Microsoft Windows And Hard-Drives

[jackthehat]

I suggest that any techies move spillable beverages out of reach before continuing to read this post......your unbridled mirth may cause you to drown your keyboard...

Anyhoo....

I have recently acquired a new PC which has Windows Vista (Business) installed. It doesn't suit my purposes and I would prefer either Vista (Home) or XP. I have been quoted a price to install Vista (Home) which I felt was a bit much. So I am exploring other options.

I have diligently saved the HDDs from my previous machines all of which ran XP (3. no PC's & 1. no Laptop). Am I wrong in thinking that Windows XP will be saved onto these HDDs?
I have a HDD docking unit and can read the content of each drive through the new PC. However, because Word/Excel and the remainder of the Microsoft Office Suite is not installed on it, I cannot open any of the files.

Is it possible, without physically swapping the HDDs, to run windows from one of these drives?
If it isn't and I discombobulate the PC and fit one of these older drives, will windows actually run, or is there some other techy-interface gubbins that would be required first?

Please be gentle with me......and, Thanks. :o)

[jeffa]

"Am I wrong in thinking that Windows XP will be saved onto these HDDs?"

No you are not, but "installed" would be a more accurate verb than "saved".


"I have a HDD docking unit and can read the content of each drive through the new PC. Is it possible, without physically swapping the HDDs, to run windows from one of these drives?"

No - that's not how PCs work. They need what's termed a "boot drive" which, for historical reasons, needs to be the C: drive.

I'd advise you to buy a copy of Windows XP:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

and then format your new machine and install XP on it, if YOU ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MUST HAVE WINDOWS XP!!!

[jackthehat]

So, if I were to physically swap the current C: Drive with one of my 'rescued drives' which has windows installed, everything should be good?

[jomifl]

If it is a PC rather than a laptop then there should be room to install one of your old HDs additionally. This would mean that you can swap between operating systems if you feel the need. I did this for a neighbour some years ago and it worked perfectly.

[jeffa]

Not unless by some miracle all of the hardware in your new machine was absolutely identical to all of the hardware in the machine that the old hard disk came out of. Otherwise you'll spend ages looking for the correct drivers etc.

I can't with any conscience advise you to do that any more than I'd advise anyone to use Windows XP these days.

Thinking about it, though, what have you done with the copy of Windows XP (by which, I mean the CD / DVD) which came with your old machine(s)?

[jackthehat]

I have absolutely no idea, Jeffa......I hang onto all sorts of nonsense but have no idea where the discs have gone....:o(

Although, I suspect my son might have the grace to blush were I to ask him! LoL

Thanks to you and jomifl.

[jomifl]

jefffa he just used it for word processing.. drivers can be installed if necessary if they arent too ancient and files can be tranferred between hard drives..

[Old_Geezer]

Can one not define one of the external drives as the boot partition ?

[jeffa]

"Can one not define one of the external drives as the boot partition?"

No.

[VHG]

I am not sure why Vista Business does not suit your purposes when Vista Home does because there is hardly any difference from a usability point of view. Vista Business may have a few extra features but if you don't use them they wont affect anything, it will be just like using Vista Home.

But it is NOT a good idea to go back to XP. It is an old operating system which is not supported and is open to security attacks.

Later versions of Windows like 7 and 8 have much more security built in.

If you don't want to use Vista (which was a pile of crap to be honest) then any PC which runs Vista should be capable of running Windows 7.

I would but Windows 7 Home OEM for £70 and install that.

[jackthehat]

VHG - This version of Vista Has a lot of stuff I don't need and none of the stuff that I do.

I have full versions of the Microsoft Office Suite etc. on the other drives, and use all of them in my work. It would seem to be more sensible to re-use what I can rather than fork out money for something I already have.....on 4 other hard-drives....LoL

[whiskeryron]

Just to let you know jth. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/end-support-help

[jomifl]

OG I believe on boot up a PC can only use the operating system on one of the drives connected directly to the motherboard. All the other stuff is accessed using the operating system on the HD as jeffa implied,

[jeffa]

More precisely, to boot a Windows machine from a hard disk, that hard disk has to be either the only one wired to the motherboard or, if more than one present, the one configured as the boot drive from within the machine's BIOS. The machine will then look for the boot sector on that drive and take action accordingly, the final part of the boot process being to open a file called BOOT.ini in that drive's root directory which will specify where the operating system is installed.

[Tuvok]

What you may find if you connect your old HDD and set it to be the boot drive, that when Windows starts it will detect your new motherboard etc.

At this point Windows might through a wobbly and not start because it has detected a major hardware change. Your only option then would to do a repair install from your installation disks - which I assume from your post that you no longer have!

If you do have or can borrow the disks and still have your product key you may succeed with the repair install - depends on how awkward Windows decides to be.

[SlackAlice]

If you've still got the install cd's and product key of "Microsoft Office Suite", why not install it on your new machine?

[jackthehat]

Ah......but I haven't. :o(

Thankyou all for your input. I seems that I am going to have to bite the bullet and pay to have the stuff I need installed.

Regards.

[SlackAlice]

Why not use OpenOffice? It's good and it's free.

https://www.openoffice.org/

[jomifl]

just a thought jack, do you know anybody who has a multi use copy of the windows version that you want? Sometimes older and unused copies come up on Ebay.